Alabama flirted with a stunner, leading by two with under three minutes to play before Georgetown center Roy Hibbert put the game away.

Hibbert made a nice pass out of a double-team to a wide-open Jessie Sapp for a 3-pointer with about two minutes left, then scored and drew a foul of Yamene Coleman to stretch the Hoyas lead to 64-58 with 1:52 left to play. After an Alabama turnover, Hibbert snared a key offensive rebound that led to two more Georgetown free throws by DaJuan Summers that ended Alabama's chances for the upset.

Ultimately, the Crimson Tide didnt play well enough to score the upset, but at least kept the game interesting against one of the toughest teams in college basketball. Richard Hendrix was, as expected, the main show for Alabama, but Mykal Riley also turned in a strong performance with 15 points and 5 rebounds, including some nice 3-point shooting.

If Riley can continue to shoot and rebound like he did tonight, the Tide should stay competitive the rest of the season. Long-range shooting is clearly not a strength for this team, and nothing I saw from any of the point guards made me think Ron Steele wouldn't make this team two tiers better. Alabama took a lot of shots outside the set offense, a lot of bad shots (some of which went in) and still kept its dignity.

The Tide was able to stick around for most of the game because they hit just enough 3-pointers and grabbed enough rebounds to keep it interesting. Georgetown outrebounded the Tide 25-13 in the second half, which contributed more than anything else to the Hoyas' win.